---
type: "Bill"
title: "Grottoes, Town of; amending charter, appointment of member to office of vice-mayor, etc."
description: "Authorizes the town council to appoint a member to the office of vice-mayor, to serve in the event of the mayor's absence or inability to act. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1396"
citation: "Virginia HB 1396 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Charters"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["R. Steven Landes"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2016-07-27"
last_action: "2017-03-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5e5f2482-2d33-4f58-8e01-96c016a13065"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1396"
source_hash: "9d4e94f8a93a47fd7841e5f985126ee0a872d744c49fb9d11efcca36ee65b733"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1396 (2017) — Grottoes, Town of; amending charter, appointment of member to office of vice-mayor, etc.

Authorizes the town council to appoint a member to the office of vice-mayor, to serve in the event of the mayor's absence or inability to act. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0659)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0659)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1396ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1396ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100172D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1396)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Local Government — **8–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns — **19–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **10–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- R. Steven Landes — primary (person)
- Emmett W. Hanger, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-07-27** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100172D `introduction`
- **2016-07-27** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-12** Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-23** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-24** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-01-25** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-26** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-26** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-17** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled
- **2017-02-21** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-21** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-20** Approved by Governor-Chapter 659 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5e5f2482-2d33-4f58-8e01-96c016a13065`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).